SHE left Britain devastated by father Robert Maxwell's death and rebuilt her life in New York. Now Ghislaine is at the heart of the scandal surrounding Prince Andrew

She was her father's favourite, his youngest and most cherished child. Robert Maxwell could hardly have made that clearer when he named his yacht the Lady Ghislaine after the last of his nine children.

Her six surviving siblings have always acknowledged it, although whether they bore any resentment is unknown. But one wonders if any will surface now that Ghislaine Maxwell appears to have followed her doting father by dragging the family name through the mud.

Ghislaine, who turned 53 on Christmas Day, is implicated in a sex scandal that has cast her in the role of a high–class madam. In documents lodged with the US courts it is alleged that she procured girls, including Virginia Roberts, who were used as sexual playthings by the tycoon Jeffrey Epstein and his powerful friends.

Those friends allegedly included our very own Prince Andrew, Duke of York, the Queen's son, which has turned a sordid tale into something much bigger.

Ghislaine was not yet 30 in November 1991 when her father's body was found floating in the Atlantic near the Canary Islands, and it has never been satisfactorily established whether he fell, jumped or was pushed from the deck of his aforementioned yacht.

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Ghislaine Maxwell has been accused by Virginia Roberts of recruiting her

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Ghislaine with her father Robert Maxwell

She was her father's favourite, his youngest and most cherished child. Robert Maxwell could hardly have made that clearer when he named his yacht the Lady Ghislaine after the last of his nine children.

At that time, Ghislaine was attractive, with her father's saturnine looks. An expensive education at Marlborough (Kate Middleton's alma mater) followed by Balliol College, Oxford, indicated she was intelligent but had yet to make her mark in any discernible manner other than as an avid socialite.

Gatherings around the Maxwell dinner table were rarely relaxed affairs. The conversation might be conducted in two or more languages (Betty, mother of the Maxwell brood, was French) and it could be painful. One of Ghislaine's older sisters' acting ambitions were cruelly mocked by Maxwell. The boys had to keep up with the topics or suffer their father's wrath.

BUT he adored and spoiled Ghislaine. He made her a director of Oxford United, the football club he owned, and bankrolled the corporate gifts company she ran. When he bought the New York Daily News he appointed her to an ill–defined role with the "special projects" team. When he launched The European newspaper, Ghislaine was the business development manager.

She took friends up in the Maxwell helicopter for thrilling rides and attended the most prestigious events on both sides of the Atlantic, supposedly earning herself the nickname "Good Time Ghislaine".

It was said Maxwell was exasperated by her lack of ambition but what did she have to be ambitious for when her father indulged her every whim? Perhaps, unsurprisingly, that indulgence fuelled "an unsettling degree of arrogance" according to employees at the Maxwell–owned Mirror Group.

But when Maxwell died, Ghislaine too felt cast adrift. She was the only one of the Maxwell children who was still single. Her brothers Kevin and Ian were facing their own troubles over the millions missing from the Mirror pension fund. So Ghislaine fled to New York and, with typical Maxwell flourish, she went by Concorde. Even all those years ago the fare was £2,500.

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Prince Andrew is at the centre of a new scandal

She was soon a fixture on the glitzy New York social scene, hosting glamorous dinner parties at her Upper East Side residence and gracing charity fundraisers. "She is always the most interesting, most vivacious, most unusual person in the room," gushed one acquaintance.

It was at one such event that Ghislaine met Sarah Ferguson, Andrew's ex–wife. They became friendly and, in due course, Sarah introduced Ghislaine to Andrew. To all appearances the Prince and the disgraced magnate's daughter became friends, although there was never any suggestion of a more intimate relationship.

As to how Ghislaine funded her lavish lifestyle despite her lack of employment and the depletion of the family fortunes, it was said she received £80,000 a year from a trust fund. But she also became another rich man's protégée.

Eight years her senior, financier Jeffrey Epstein is as enigmatic a character as Ghislaine's father, with hints of links to both Israeli intelligence agency Mossad and the CIA. Epstein and Ghislaine were romantically involved – but the wedding she hoped for never materialised.

Now Epstein is primarily known for serving a year in jail after he was convicted of soliciting prostitutes, and he has been accorded a central role in the seedy allegations of sex with under–age girls.

As for Ghislaine, she became a venture capitalist with a seat on the board of Seed Media Group and founded TerraMar, a non–profit organisation dedicated to ocean conservation. As a qualified deep sea diver she has explored the ocean bed. Still unmarried she has grown to resemble her father more than ever.

Whether the resemblance goes further than facial looks we – and the beleaguered Maxwell clan – await to learn with bated breath.

WHAT BECAME OF THE MAXWELL BROTHERS?

As Robert Maxwell's heirs, sons Ian and Kevin were faced not only with a financial mess but also fraud charges. After a lengthy and complex trial costing £12million, the brothers were acquitted.

Ian, 58, succeeded his father as chairman of Mirror Group Newspapers but resigned after a month. He has been involved with a publishing company but keeps a low profile.

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Ian Maxwell, left, and Kevin Maxwell faced fraud charges following their father's death

When Maxwell senior died, Ian was newly married to Laura, a TV producer. They divorced after five years. In 1999 he married Tara Dudley Smith. They had a son but separated in 2009.

Kevin Maxwell, 55, is the youngest son.

Following his father's death he became the biggest personal bankrupt in British history with debts in 1992 of £406million.

Three years later Kevin co–founded Telemonde, a media company which also went under. In 2005 he went into large–scale property sales and was involved in organising the sale of Earls Court Exhibition Centre.

Following an investigation in 2011 into the collapse of Syncro, a building company based in Manchester, Kevin was disqualified from holding a company directorship for eight years.

His marriage to the famously outspoken Pandora ended in 2007 after 23 years and seven children.